The present invention resides generally in the field of medical materials and in particular aspects to medical materials useful for tissue grafting.
As further background, a variety of extracellular matrix (ECM) materials have been proposed for use in medical grafting, cell culture, and other related applications. For instance, medical grafts and cell culture materials containing submucosa derived from small intestine, stomach or urinary bladder tissues, have been proposed. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,902,508, 4,956,178, 5,281,422, 5,554,389, 6,099,567 and 6,206,931. In addition, Cook Biotech Incorporated, West Lafayette, Ind., currently manufactures a variety of medical materials based upon small intestinal submucosa under the trademarks SURGISIS®, STRATASIS® and OASIS®.
Medical materials derived from liver basement membrane have also been proposed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,710. As well, ECM materials derived from amnion (see e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,361,552 and 6,576,618) and from renal capsule membrane (see International PCT Patent Application No. WO 03/002165 published Jan. 9, 2003) have been proposed for medical and/or cell culture applications. Many of these materials, however, are limited by their size and strength. In certain applications, multiple strips or sheets of these materials must be coupled or otherwise bonded together in order to achieve a graft large enough to cover a desired area while still retaining enough strength to prevent the need for re-implantation.
With respect to the above, it is apparent that a need remains for alternate medical materials that can be used in a wide variety of medical applications, particularly those requiring larger-sized and/or relatively extensible grafts. The present invention provides such medical materials, as well as methods of preparing and using the same.